This will probably be uncomfortable for all of us.

One thing about me: I have an unusual knack for finding well-preserved dead things in the bush. Like a magnet. It's generally just a good eye for the particular white of sun-bleached bone, but today I was walking through some bracken wondering if I'd find anything and I nearly put my foot through this damp wild sheep skull. It had either been moved very far from the rest of its body, or the other bones were a separate animal. I also found what I think is a fox skull which was sitting on a low ledge by the path under some ferns, like a little gift.

on survival

The voluminous reports of presidential commissions on violence, racism, and civil disorder have recently begun to say to us what artists like Melville and Faulkner had earlier prophesied: that myths reach out of the past to cripple, incapacitate, or strike down the living. It is by now commonplace that our adherence to the "myth of the frontier" -- the conception of America as a wide-open land of unlimited opportunity of the strong, ambitious, self-reliant individual to thrust his way to the top -- has blinded us to the consequences of the industrial and urban revolutions and to the need of social reform and a new concept of individual and communal welfare. Nor it is by a far-fetched association that the murderous violence that has characterized recent political life has been linked by poets and news commentators alike to the "frontier psychology" of our recent past and long heritage. The first colonists saw in America the opportunity to regenerate their fortunes, their spirits, and the power of their church and nation; but the means to that regeneration ultimately became the means of violence, and the myth of regeneration through violence became the structuring metaphor of the American experience.”

"race is a social construct": a bit harder to swallow for some but still reasonable

Polish folks LARPing as Americans, some photographs of (by Maciej Margielski)

More phots here.

i. the monster's body is a cultural body

ii. the monster always escapes

iii. the monster is the harbinger of category crisis

iv. the monster dwells at the gates of difference

v. the monster polices the borders of the possible

vi. fear of the monster is really a kind of desire

these are all direct quotes from jeffrey jerome cohen's "monster culture (seven theses)" (full pdf linked) i highly encourage you to read it yourself!

that said, while i think cohen's writing is evocative, it can be a little dense, so while i'm here, here's my capsule summary (you can also hear me talk about this in the first episode of my podcast) (listen to @ghostswerepeopletoo)

i. the monster's body is a cultural body - The monster is a work of fiction to be analyzed through tools of literary and sociological theory.

ii. the monster always escapes - As long as the cultural fear from which the monster stems persists, the monster will reappear in retellings, reimaginings, and sequels.

iii. the monster is the harbinger of category crisis - Monsters defy binaries and challenge easy comprehension or categorization.

iv. the monster dwells at the gates of difference - The monster represents the Other.

v. the monster polices the borders of the possible - Tales of the monster exist to discourage unacceptable or taboo behaviors.

vi. fear of the monster is really a kind of desire - Subjects can vicariously participate in the disruption of the social order through the monster.